In a recent court ruling, the US Department of Labor (DOL) prevailed against corporate directors and shareholders for claims related to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) transaction. Most ESOPs are established through arm's length transactions that comply with the Employment Retirement Income Security Act’s(ERISA) fiduciary ...
Last month, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Treasury (Departments), issued the highly anticipated final rule under the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 (MHPAEA). The original text of the MHPAEA requires group health plans to offer mental health and substance use disorder (MH/SUD) care on the ...
Effective January 1, 2025, Kentucky has new law regulating pharmacy benefit managers (“PBMs”). Earlier this year, the Governor of Kentucky signed SB 188 into law, making Kentucky the latest state to pass legislation regulating PBMs. The new law applies to PBM contracts issued, renewed, extended, or amended on or after January 1, 2025.
SB ...
For the first time in four years, the IRS adjusted the affordability percentage used for the shared responsibility penalties. The IRS recently announced that the affordability percentage for 2025 will be 9.02%. This is up from 8.39% in 2024. For employers this means that if you set your employee premium costs from last year right at the ...
The retirement plan industry has been wrestling with the changes to required minimum distribution (RMD) provisions made by the SECURE Act and SECURE 2.0. One issue in particular has caused considerable confusion. Section 401(a)(9) of the Code was amended to provide that, if a retirement plan participant dies after distributions have begun ...
On April 26, 2024, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published the Reproductive Health Care Rule. This final rule enhances the HIPAA privacy protections for protected health information (PHI) relating to reproductive health care. While the Rule is effective June 25, 2024, all covered entities, including group health ...
The SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0) made numerous changes to the complex web that makes up U.S. retirement plan laws. Of interest to S corporations that may be considering an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) is the expansion of Section 1042 of the tax code to permit a 10% tax deferral for certain sales to S corporation ESOPs.
Section 1042 has ...
When it comes to pre-tax savings for qualifying medical expenses, employers have several options available to offer employees. Two of the more popular options are health savings accounts (HSAs) and health reimbursement accounts (HRAs). Both provide valuable benefits for employees. Which to offer may depend on several factors, including ...
As the temperatures continue to rise, regulations and litigation related to employer-sponsored group health plans have followed suit. As these new rules continue to evolve, we are often asked whether a self-insured group health plan is required to cover gender-affirming medical services. Many state governments have enacted legislation on ...
SECURE 2.0 provided employees better access to liquid assets during a major life crisis. We have previously discussed the domestic abuse victim distribution exemption and the emergency personal expense distribution exemption in this space. We are revisiting these topics because the IRS, through issuance of Notice 2024-55, has provided ...